A new teaser for The Defenders is a three-part gift to fans of Marvel’s superhero universe on Netflix, offering the first footage of the team together, a secret link to some new online content, and the release date for the much-anticipated crossover miniseries.
Titled “Midland Circle Security Elevator B,” the brief, 16-second video is presented as security camera footage of Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Danny Rand (Finn Jones) in an elevator together. The video ends with Jones dismantling the camera.
While the footage of the team together certainly has its own appeal, the video also hides a few secrets.
The time stamp on the video footage is stopped at “08:18:20:17” — a number that seems a to resemble a date in the near future a little too deliberately. This has led to speculation that the miniseries will premiere August 18, 2017, on Netflix.
But that isn’t the only secret the video appears to hide.
Near the end of the video, after the monitor is only showing static, the upper-left corner of the screen features the line “ip/dns //:23.253.120.81” — clearly intended to look like the camera’s IP address. However, a visit to the URL at “http://23.253.120.81” reveals another big piece of content related to The Defenders.
Anyone visiting that URL is redirected to the homepage of the fictional newspaper The New York Bulletin, which features a series of stories involving the cast of the four Marvel series on Netflix, as well as a video interview with two of the supporting characters in Iron Fist. The site also has an ad for Colleen Wing’s dojo (from Iron Fist), along with an archive of covers that hint at events past and future in the interconnected world of the four series.
The cast of The Defenders currently features the four characters from the elevator, joined by Deborah Ann Woll (Daredevil) as Karen Page, Simone Missick (Luke Cage) as Misty Knight, Elden Henson (Daredevil) as Foggy Nelson, Eka Darville (Jessica Jones) as Malcolm, Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones) as Jeri Hogarth, Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) as Colleen Wing, Rosario Dawson (Luke Cage) as Claire Temple, Elodie Yung (Daredevil) as Elektra, Rachael Taylor (Jessica Jones) as Trish Walker, and several other supporting cast members from the earlier shows. Jon Bernthal is also rumored to be reprising his role as The Punisher and Sigourney Weaver is confirmed to play a still-unidentified villain.
Marco Ramirez and Doug Petrie, who served as showrunners on Daredevil, will serve the same role on The Defenders.
